I am interested in how galaxies formed and evolved into present day galaxies. There are many unanswered questions on how even our own Milky Way formed into today's complex set of galactic substructures: thin disk, thick disk, bulge, halo, and nearby satellites. My current research focuses on answering some of these questions by developing and using new adaptive optics instruments to study galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, I use OSIRIS (OH-Suppressing InfraRed Imaging Spectrograh) with Keck Observatory's laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS-AO) system to identify and analyze the dynamics and chemical abundances of galaxies in the early universe. OSIRIS is a lenslet-based integral field spectrograph that takes spectra over a two-dimensional area, rather than using the traditional slit-based spectrographs. OSIRIS coupled with an adaptive optics system provides a unique ability to probe the spatial extent of high redshift (z > 1, look back time greater than 9 Gyr) extragalactic nebular emission lines in a single observation at sub-arcsecond (sub-kiloparsec) scales.

I work with James Larkin and collaborators to use OSIRIS with the Keck LGS-AO system to target galaxies between the redshift range of 1.3 to 1.7 (8.8 to 9.8 Gyr ago), where H-alpha emission is redshifted to near-infrared wavelengths (H-band). Our first paper on this survey presents the kinematics of a candidate disk galaxy at z=1.5 (Wright et al. 2007). A paper with six z~1.6 star forming galaxies followed showing distinct dynamics of both merger systems and disk candidates (Wright et al. 2009) at this same epoch. The disk candidates have 2D velocities that are well fit with inclined disk models and have velocity and masses that imply that these systems may potentially be the precursors to spiral galaxies of today.

I am a CATS (Center of Adaptive Optics Treasury Survey) team member, which is a coordinated multi-institute program to observe thousands of galaxies with the Keck AO system in the deepest fields covered by the Great Observatories (HST, CHANDRA, and Spitzer). CATS provides diffraction limited infrared images using the NIRC2 wide field camera (40"x40"). The primary science goals are galaxy formation, measuring star formation rates and stellar populations, and studying active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Former Research

For my Masters I worked with Dr. Andrea Ghez researching the Galactic Center at infrared wavelengths. We used the Keck adaptive optics system to study line-of-sight extinction and physical processes surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

I am also interested in SETI (Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence). During my undergraduate years I was involved with constructing, commissioning, and observing with Lick Observatory's Optical SETI detector. After graduation, I lived on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands and worked for the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes as a support astronomer. My research projects included optical spectroscopy of Planetary Nebulae, and crowded field photometry of Local Group galaxies.